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SOUTH JORDAN — When Chadd Player bought an audiobook through the Apple Books app, he expected to pay just for that book. However, he wound up paying for the title twice.
"They charged me for both the audiobook and the regular book (e-book)," Player said.
The thing is, he said, this is the second time Apple has charged him for two formats of the same book when he only wanted one.
While the amount involved in this case, $35, isn’t exactly life-changing, the fight to actually get that money back kind of has been.
Player messaged Apple and requested a refund. It was denied. His appeal? Also denied. Eventually, he spoke to a supervisor who he said agreed the charge looked wrong, but that hasn’t changed anything.
"(I) was basically told that there wasn’t anything they can do," he said. "Their little AI process made the decision. They can’t override it."
Player said an Apple rep told him his best option was to dispute the charge through his bank, which he did. He got his money back just like that. So, end of story, right? Nope!
Days later, when he tried to use Apple Pay at a store, his purchase didn’t go through. Turns out, Apple had kicked his debit card off the account.
"I reached out again," he said. "Was on the phone a good hour and a half, and basically what I was told is if you dispute a charge, then at that point that account becomes blacklisted."
No more buying audiobooks, e-books he doesn’t want or anything else.
"I was a little hot, a little frustrated. Didn’t know if there was anything else I could do," he said. "That’s when I reached out to you."
The KSL Investigators reached out to Apple about Player’s case. We asked about the double charges, the refund process and specifically whether humans can ever override a decision made by artificial intelligence.
Despite our multiple attempts through multiple channels, we did not hear back, not even from an AI chatbot.
Now, there is no federal law that states Apple must accept your debit card. It’s not a protected right. But the feds do say consumers have the right to have their disputes heard by merchants when they are double-billed or charged the wrong amount.
The Fair Credit Billing Act spells out the dispute process when the transaction was done by credit card. And Regulation E under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act gives debit card users a way to report errors to their financial institution.
What is less clear is whether a merchant can then say: "Fine! You win the dispute, but we absolutely refuse to take your card from now on."
That’s the part Player said feels backwards.
"You shouldn’t be punished for that," he said.
This is not the first time in recent weeks I have a reported on a consumer being told by a company, "Yeah, we can see there’s a problem, but we can’t help you. We can’t override what the computer says."
It’s something both consumers and companies are going to need to figure out as AI-driven "customer service" becomes more widely adapted.
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